Stocking up on popcorn: Israel started hitting Damascus

The Israeli Air Force is striking government buildings in Damascus — the Syria TV channel showed how rockets explode near the presidential palace.

"Israeli occupation planes carried out an airstrike near the presidential palace in Damascus," the report says.

Earlier, the Israeli Air Force twice hit the complex of buildings of the General Staff of the Syrian armed Forces in the capital of the country.

As EADaily reported, on the eve of the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Syria, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, called for resistance by all possible means to the armed forces of the interim government introduced into the southern province of Suwayda. The "forces of the interim Syrian government" are a collection of armed Islamist groups, one of which, Hayat Tahrir al—Sham❶, was previously headed by the current leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani).

A little earlier, the Syrian Interior Ministry announced the introduction of troops into the city and the introduction of a curfew. On July 13, Islamist armed groups attacked a number of Druze settlements, as a result of which the highway connecting the province with Damascus was also blocked. To protect the civilian population, Druze self-defense units joined the battle with armed gangs.

After Sheikh al-Hijri's appeal, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened "painful blows" if the Syrian government did not stop the attack on the Druze community in the Suwayda area in the south of the Arab country.

❶Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation